“Those who do not move do not feel their chains.”
– Rosa Luxemburg
History has lots to teach us about democracy. For instance, about something we commemorate May 1st: International Worker’ Day. It happened that in the 19th century, the working class was in relentless struggle to have an 8-hour work day and other protections. Working situations were austere for so many working 10 to 16 hour days in hazardous conditions. Thus, in the 1860’s, working people mobilized speaking loud and clear in favor of an 8-hour work day without a cut in pay – claimed by the working people themselves without the support or consent of the employers. Two decades later, organized labor was able to gather sufficient courage to proclaim the 8-hour workday. “The curves of your lips rewrite history.” Oscar Wilde
It is interesting to see that after such hard struggle, in present day industrial societies, many worry about the possibility of losing their jobs to robots and computers. What sounds like a science fiction movie is actually not. A recent report by the World Economic Forum states that “developments in artificial intelligence, robotics, and biotechnology, would disrupt the business world in a similar way to previous industrial revolutions.”
According to Klaus Schwab, the founder and chairman of the WEF, given that technology could kill 5 million jobs by 2020 countries will have to invest in transforming their workforce if they want to keep up with the changes and avoid a worst case scenario of “talent shortages, mass unemployment and growing inequality.”
How is this happening? Nearly every job being replaced by new technology is part of an industry paying middle-class wages. For instance, according to the Labor Department statistics, “in the U.S., more than 1.1 million secretaries vanished from the job market between 2000 and 2010, their job security shattered by software that lets bosses field calls themselves and arrange their own meetings and trips. Over the same period, the number of telephone operators plunged by 64 percent, word processors and typists by 63 percent, travel agents by 46 percent and bookkeepers by 26 percent.”
Well, what can we do? “Everyone is always scared that technology will take our jobs. But it has always created jobs rather than destroyed them.” We – society as a whole – cannot cease to speak up, to join our strength to awaken each other’s consciousness. We have to find new means for creating and finding meaningful work. Having a calculator will not make us mathematicians. Using a keyboard will not make us good writers. We need to further expand and strengthen our skills to work – fairly and meaningfully – with what we foresee in the future.
“It is not the strongest of the species that survive,
nor the most intelligent,
but the one most responsive to change.”
– Charles Darwin
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